TEACHING, SCHOLARSHIP, SERVICE, AND COMMUNITY IMPACT
Penn State Dickinson Law faculty are a collective of teachers and learners who are thoughtful, accomplished, and productive members of the legal academy. From practitioner-scholars leading on praxis to research-scholars developing new, innovative legal theories, Dickinson Law faculty members are vital voices contributing to the dissemination of knowledge in, among other areas, IP and Innovation, Ethics and Artificial Intelligence, Healthcare Law, Human Rights Law, Constitutional Theory and Jurisprudence, and Antiracist pedagogy.
Tonya M. Evans, Professor of Law
Leading voice where copyright law meets new technologies including blockchain, cryptocurrency, decentralized finance, and economic empowerment in Black and Brown Communities
Selected Scholarship
- The Genesis of Creative Justice on the Blockchain to Disintermediate Creativity, 26 Lewis & Clark L. Rev. ___(forthcoming 2022)
Recent Honors
Selected Presentations
- Expert Testimony before the Pennsylvania House Democratic Policy Committee: Preparing for the Digital Future (2021)
- Expert Commentary before the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine on behalf of the U.S. Government Accountability Office: Cryptocurrencies, Decentralized Finance, and Economic Empowerment in Black and Brown Communities (2021)
Sara Gerke, Assistant Professor of Law
Rising voice on the ethical and legal challenges of artificial intelligence and big data in health care and health law in the U.S. and Europe
Selected Scholarship
- Explaining Medical AI Is Easier Said Than Done, Stat News (2021) (co-authored)
- Beware explanations from AI in health care, 373 Science 256, 284 (2021) (co-authored)
- To Spur Growth in AI, We Need a New Approach to Legal Liability, Harv. Bus. Rev. (Jul. 2021) (co-authored)
- When Machine Learning Goes Off the Rails, Harv. Bus. Rev. (Jan. – Feb. 2021) (co-authored)
- Direct-to-Consumer Medical Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence Applications, 3 Nature Mach. Intell. 283 (2021) (co-authored)
- The need for health AI ethics in medical school education, 26 Adv. In Health Sci. Educ. 1447 (2021) (co-authored)
- Liability in Medicine: Balancing Safety and Innovation, 99, Iss. 3 Milbank Q. 629 (2021) (co-authored)
- How Much Can Potential Jurors Tell Us About Liability for Medical Artificial Intelligence?, 62 JNM 15 (2021) (co-authored)
Recent Honors
- 2021 Health Law Scholar, American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics at the Saint Louis University School of Law Center for Health Law Studies
Selected Presentations
- Series Organizer, Direct-to-Consumer Health Apps: Ethical, Legal, and Regulatory Concerns for the Bill of Health Blog of the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School (2021)
- Expert Commentary, National Academy of Medicine’s Leadership Consortium, Digital Health Action Collaborative and Culture Inclusion & Equity Action Collaborative (2021)
Medha D. Makhlouf, Assistant Professor of Law & Director, Medical-Legal Partnership Clinic
Influencing voice at the intersection of health law, immigrants’ rights, and poverty law and policy
Selected Scholarship
- An Equitable Distribution of COVID-19 Vaccine Must Include Noncitizens, The Hill (2021) (co-authored)
- A Pathway to Health Care Citizenship for DACA Beneficiaries, 12 Calif. L. Rev. Online 29 (2021) (co-authored)
Recent Honors
- 2020 Dickinson Law Faculty Excellence Award
- 2020 Atlantic Fellow for Health Equity
Selected Presentations
- AALS Appointments Committee Workshop: Changing Practices in Academic Hiring (2021)
- Politics, Pandemic, and the Future of Civil Rights and Poverty Law, AALS Annual Meeting (2021)
Dermot M. Groome, Professor of Law and Harvey A. Feldman Distinguished Faculty Scholar
Championing voice in international human rights and international criminal law and rising voice in Antiracist pedagogy
Selected Scholarship
- Principal developer, designer, drafter, curator, and editor of The Race and the Equal Protection of the Laws Program at Dickinson Law
- Educating Antiracist Lawyers: The Race and the Equal Protection of the Laws Program at Dickinson Law, 23, No. 1 Rutgers Race & L. Rev. ___ (forthcoming 2022)
Recent Honors
- 2021 Dickinson Law Faculty Excellence Award
Selected Presentations
- Genocide and International Justice, Boston College Law School Kupferschmid Holocaust/Human Rights Project (2021)
- Victim Driven International Justice, Atrocity Study Prevention Group of the Stimson Center (2021)
Raff Donelson, Associate Professor of Law
Emerging voice on constitutional protections for the accused and the incarcerated, with a theoretical focus on metaethics and general jurisprudence
Selected Scholarship
- Are There Cross-Cultural Legal Principles? Model Reasoning Uncovers Procedural Constraints on Law, Cognitive Science (2021)
- The Real Problem with Katz Circularity, 65 St. Louis U. L.J. ___ (2020)
Recent Honors
- Awarded Early Promotion to Associate Professor of Law
Selected Presentations
- Natural Punishment Faculty Workshop Series, University of Illinois College of Law (forthcoming 2022)
- Hobbes and America’s Police Program, George Mason University Institute for Humane Studies (forthcoming 2021)
Danielle M. Conway, Dean and Donald J. Farage Professor of Law
Enterprising voice at the intersection of Antiracist leadership and coalition building in service to democratic institutions and the rule of law
Selected Scholarship
- Building An Antiracist Law School, Legal Academy, And Legal Profession, volumes 1-10 (Danielle Conway, ed., UC Press, forthcoming 2022-23)
- The Rise of the Collective Decanal Voice in Beyond Imagination (Mark Alexander, ed., West Publishers, forthcoming 2022)
- Reflection: Danielle M. Conway in Theaster Gates: Facsimile Cabinet Of Women Origin Stories (Daisy Bousquet-Desrosiers, ed., Delmonico Books, forthcoming 2021)
- The Assault on Critical Race Theory as Pretext for Populist Backlash on Institutions of Higher Education, 66, No. 4 St. Louis U. L.J. ___ (forthcoming 2022)
- Antiracist Lawyering in Practice Begins with the Practice of Antiracist Teaching and Learning in Law Schools, 2022, No. 3 Utah L. Rev. ___ (forthcoming 2022)
- A Black Woman Law Dean Speaks About the Precarity of Leadership, 51.2 Sw. L. Rev. ___ (forthcoming 2022)
- Black Women’s Suffrage, the 19th Amendment, and the Duality of a Movement, 13.1 Ala. C.R. & C.L. L. Rev. 1 (forthcoming Spring 2022)
- Building an Antiracist Law School: Inclusivity in Admissions and Retention of Diverse Students—Leadership Determines DEI Success, 23, No. 1 Rutgers Race & L. Rev. ___ (forthcoming 2022) (co-authored)
- Embracing and Making Change: Serving the Law Students of Today and Tomorrow, 70 No. 1 J. Legal Educ. ___ (forthcoming 2022)
Recent Honors
- Board of Directors, AccessLex Institute
- Executive Committee Member, AALS
- Co-Chair, Penn State Presidential Commission on Racism, Bias & Community Safety
- 2021 Central Penn Business Journal Law and Lobbyist Power 30 List
- Inaugural AALS Impact Award, Law Deans Antiracist Clearinghouse Project
- 2020 CLEO Edge Education (Institutional) Award
- 2020 Belva Ann Lockwood Award
Selected Presentations
- 2021 Lee E. Teitelbaum Utah Law Review Symposium Keynote: Antiracist Lawyering in Practice Begins with the Practice of Antiracist Teaching and Learning in Law Schools
- Antiracist Lawyering: How All Attorneys Can Build a Racial-Justice-Centered Practice, Practicing Law Institute Program (2021)